UNC to celebrate dedication of Marsico Hall March 27

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will dedicate Marsico Hall (formerly called the IRB building or the BRIC building) at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, March 27.

Marsico Hall—one of the largest buildings on the UNC campus—will house basic and translational research across several disciplines and will feature state-of-the-art imaging equipment that will fundamentally advance knowledge of cancer and many other complex diseases.

Dignitaries speaking at the ceremony include: Chancellor Carol L. Folt; Thomas Ross, president of the University of North Carolina; Aldona Wos, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services; Lowry Caudill, chair of the UNC Board of Trustees; Robert Blouin, dean of the Eshelman School of Pharmacy; Bill Roper, dean of the School of Medicine and vice chancellor for medical affairs and chief executive officer of the UNC Health Care System; and Thomas F. Marsico.

Those remarks will be followed by a reception and guided tours of Marsico Hall.

Funds for the building were provided by the people of North Carolina through state appropriations to further the research mission of UNC-Chapel Hill. The facility has a total project cost of $245 million, with the N.C. General Assembly providing $243.5 million to construct the building and UNC providing the remaining $1.5 million. As the only new public building funded by the state in 2009, Marsico Hall will have a significant impact on North Carolina’s economy and UNC’s commitment to scientific discovery.

“We are grateful for the state’s generous contributions that have made Marsico Hall a reality,” Roper said. “Because of the state’s investment, students and faculty will be able to further advance scientific discovery and the delivery of care for North Carolinians and beyond – all in a leading edge facility. This building is a gift from the people of North Carolina, and it is with great pride that we dedicate the building to them and to the advancement of the health sciences.”

Named for Thomas F. Marsico of Denver, chairman and chief executive officer of Marsico Capital Management, LLC and father of two UNC alumni, for his lifetime contributions to the School of Medicine, the basic research and translational science building is located in the heart of the UNC Health Affairs campus.

The nine-story, 340,000-square-foot building will feature world-class imaging equipment, including a hybrid MRI/PET whole body scanner, a 7 Tesla MRI whole body scanner and a cyclotron. UNC and Massachusetts General Hospital, in affiliation with Harvard University, are currently the only two academic medical centers in the country that have these three imaging devices in one location. Together, each device optimizes the capabilities of the others, making these devices some of the most powerful diagnostic imaging tools in the world.

Marsico Hall will house an impressive array of the UNC School of Medicine’s and the Eshelman School of Pharmacy’s life-saving research programs. The building includes the Marsico Lung Institute, the Biomedical Research Imaging Center, and researchers from UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, nanomedicine, microbiology and immunology, and pharmaco-engineering.

“The opening of Marsico Hall brings with it exceptional and expanded opportunities for continued collaboration between the schools of Medicine and Pharmacy at UNC,” said Blouin. “Major advances in nanomedicine, drug discovery and delivery, and biomedical imaging are within our reach. The environment, technology, and people within Marsico Hall will make these advances possible. The discoveries made here will drive the economy of the state and improve the health of North Carolinians and people around the world.”